Kaleidocosmo - an Artistic Astronomical Mosaic
What happens when you look at a star through a telescope - and then put the image out of focus?
The subtle colour of the star is revealed (find out more about the colours of stars here).
Kaleidocosmo is a 360° mosaic displaying the colour of the 1,250 brightest stars visible to the naked eye from the northern hemisphere (specifically, the latitude of Naples, Italy).
The size of each circle represents the brightness (or 'apparent magnitude') of each star.
A star's colour is determined by its temperature, as described in our fulldome film The Little Star That Could. A handful of stars are so colourful that the colours can be seen with the naked eye.
Yet only through a telescope - or a beautiful composition like Kaleidocosmo - is the full colour of the night sky revealed.
Kaleidocosmo was created by amateur astronomer Paolo Palma, and you can find out more about his artistic mosaic here.
Film Type
All ages / Families
Length: 1min
Click for larger version
Click for larger version